Sotfih American Wasp which collects Honey. 317 



nests are to be met with ; in January and February the cells 

 are in great measure filled with larvre ; in March and April 

 these decrease in number, and by the end of May scarcely 

 any are to be found. These are thought to turn into females, 

 which, not finding room in their old nursery, emigrate and 

 form new colonies, as when the fine season returns, which is 

 about the middle of June, nests are to be found in progress ; 

 but instead of only one female being at work, as is the case 

 with our wasps, Lacordaire has observed as many as a dozen 

 busily engaged in constructing their new abode. As soon as 

 a series of cells is completed larva; may be found in them, and 

 the nest is gradually increased b}" the addition of new combs. 

 In September the structure is half finished, and towards the 

 end of November it is most frequently completed. The old 

 nests of the preceding year continue peopled as before^ but 

 new larvae were only observed in them in abundance in Sep- 

 tember or October ; these are believed to turn into neuters : if 

 this is the case, the reverse takes place with the European 

 wasps, the neuters of which are first excluded. 



Mr. Walter Hawkins has presented to the collection of the 

 British Museum a pasteboard nest from the banks of the Rio 

 Yancay (Uruguay ?), which differs very materially from both 

 the structui'es I have alluded to above. It seems to be of the 

 same description as the fabric referred to by Burraeister, — by 

 Westwood* as existing in the Berlin Museum, and appears 

 to me to be identical with the nest of the " Chiguana" wasp 

 referred to by Azaraf. 



As the accompanying figs,, 1 and 2, drawn by Mr. Dinkel, 

 give its shape and general appearance better than any de- 

 scription could do, it is only necessary to say, that, viewed 

 sideways, it is of an oblong form, rounded at the base. The 

 orifices at the side, near the bottom, bulge out considerably. 



When viewed from beneath it is somewhat ovate. It is 

 very generally covered with conical knobs of various shapes, 

 nearly all of which are more or less rubbed at the end, but in 

 some places, less exposed, they are pointed, and in many in- 

 stances nearly three-quarters of an inch long. At the very 

 top, and on the side above the entrance, there are but few of 

 these projections ; in two or three places the surface is very 

 distinctly contracted, and in the concavities there are no pro- 

 jecting points ; the knobs seem to run in irregular, generally 

 transverse, ridges. 



The entrances, as may be seen in fig. 2, are artfully protected 

 by pent roofs from the weather, which, in the rainy season, is 



* Introd. to Mod. Classif., ii. p. 251. 



f Voyages dans I'Amer. M^rid., i. p. 171. 



